Isa year 25/26

Heathercole123

Is it better to open a new cash isa now for year 25/26 to get a good rate and wait until April 6th before adding funds or will the rates be better after April 6th?
Please help

eskbanker

Heathercole123 said:

Is it better to open a new cash isa now for year 25/26 to get a good rate and wait until April 6th before adding funds or will the rates be better after April 6th?
Please help

Nobody knows if rates will increase and if so, when, but the 'ISA season' phenomenon of more deals around the change of tax year is less noticeable these days than it was in years gone by....

Mark_d

You can open an ISA now.  If you get a better rate after 6 April then you can open a new ISA and put your money into the new ISA instead

Ayr_Rage

Mark_d said:

You can open an ISA now.  If you get a better rate after 6 April then you can open a new ISA and put your money into the new ISA instead

Never take out and put you funds elsewhere, always TRANSFER ISAs.

Heathercole123

Thanks for all your advice. Makes sense now 

Ocelot

Ayr_Rage said:

Mark_d said:

You can open an ISA now.  If you get a better rate after 6 April then you can open a new ISA and put your money into the new ISA instead

Never take out and put you funds elsewhere, always TRANSFER ISAs.

True, but it's often possible to not fund the first ISA and fund the second one instead, which I think Mark_d is saying.

Barkin

Ayr_Rage said:

Mark_d said:

You can open an ISA now.  If you get a better rate after 6 April then you can open a new ISA and put your money into the new ISA instead

Never take out and put you funds elsewhere, always TRANSFER ISAs.

Generally yes, if the funds are already in an ISA.
We don't know if that's the case here.

Any even then, I can think of at least one scenario where withdrawing from one to fund another, without using a transfer process, wouldn't be disadvantageous.

Johnjdc

eskbanker said:

Heathercole123 said:

Is it better to open a new cash isa now for year 25/26 to get a good rate and wait until April 6th before adding funds or will the rates be better after April 6th?
Please help

Nobody knows if rates will increase and if so, when

We always say this, although in reality when you're looking a week in advance, if there are big moves in the gilt and swap market, fixed rates often follow 1-2 weeks later, so it's worth keeping a bit of an eye on that and acting accordingly if necessary.

At the moment the 2yr gilt rate is up from 4.17% a fortnight ago to 4.27% today, having spiked to 4.35% this morning. I'd suggest this means the best ISA rates are likely to be marginally better next week than they were last week, but not by enough, or definitely enough, to make it worth waiting. For anyone considering a 5 year fix, the change is from 4.24% to 4.39%, which begins to look more worthwhile (almost a full 1% over the 5 year period).

Of course, if a good ISA has a cooling off period, the risk all falls on the provider not you...

GMeeg

I'm looking to subscribe my full allowance for 25/26 asap but the top fixed rate accounts I've looked at ask me to confirm I am applying for the current tax year. Any I might try or do I need to wait until the new year has actually started?

masonic

GMeeg said:

I'm looking to subscribe my full allowance for 25/26 asap but the top fixed rate accounts I've looked at ask me to confirm I am applying for the current tax year. Any I might try or do I need to wait until the new year has actually started?

You can apply for the current tax year without any commitment to fund. In many cases you will have a 14 day (or some other) window to fund the account, which would now take you into the next tax year. Check the T&Cs for anything saying they would close if not funded in the same tax year.